köken: From Middle High German vil līchte (“very easily”), thus: “what could easily happen”. Compare the same in German Low German villicht, Dutch wellicht, Saterland Frisian fielicht.
köken: From Vulgar Latin quī sapit (“who knows”). Cognate with Spanish and Galician quizá, Portuguese quiçá. By surface analysis, univerbation of chi + sa, literally “who knows”.
maybe; perhaps; probably (expresses a possibility or assumption)
köken: From Middle Persian šʾ(d)yt’ (šāyēd, “one can, it is possible”), grammaticalized form of the third person singular indicative form of the verb šʾd-stn’ (šāyistan, “to be able, to be worthy”) (whence Persian شایستن (šāyistan)), further from Proto-Iranian *xšáyati, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kšáyati (“he rules, he has power over”) (whence Sanskrit क्षयति (kṣáyati)), probably from Proto-Indo-European…
köken: Borrowed from Classical Persian بَلْکِه (balki). Cognate with Kyrgyz балки (balki), Bashkir бәлки (bəlki), Uzbek balki, Azerbaijani bəlkə, Turkish belki, etc.
köken: Compound of 十 (“ten”) + 中 (“inside”) + 八 (“eight”) + 九 (“nine”), literally "eight or nine out of ten". Compare Chinese 十有八九 (shíyǒubājiǔ), 十之八九 (shízhībājiǔ).
köken: Shortened from találom (“I think, I believe”, literally “I find it [to be in some way]”), the first-person present tense form of the verb talál (“to find”). Compare hiszen.
köken: From Proto-Italic *fortis, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰértis (“the act of carrying”) (compare Old Irish brith, German Geburt, English bear, burden, Russian бремя (bremja, “burden”), брать (bratʹ, “to take”), Sanskrit भृति (bhṛti, “carrying”)), derivative of *bʰer-, whence also Latin ferō (“bring, carry”). For the semantic development, compare Proto-Germanic *buriz (“favorable wind”), from the…
köken: From må (“may, might”) + ske (“happen”), after Middle Low German machschēn (“mayhap”). Compare with Norwegian kanskje and Swedish kanske. Compare also English mayhap and Dutch misschien.